I'm going to do a blog on this subject but before I do, I would like to find out how you all feel about buying used clothing from thrift shops.

If you do, does it ever occur to you that the person who wore the clothing may have had a some kind of skin problems? This can't be washed out since the clothes cannot be washed in water hot enough to sanitize and that goes for using bleach on the clothes.

Tell me how you feel about doing this. There is an article in the L.A. Times New safety rules for children's clothes have stores in a fit - this deals with lead in clothes coming from China and several people are up in arms about it. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,2083247.story

...If you do, does it ever occur to you that the person who wore the clothing may have had a some kind of skin problems? This can't be washed out since the clothes cannot be washed in water hot enough to sanitize and that goes for using bleach on the clothes

You are buying new clothes in stores all the time that people have tried on...sometimes they even take them home and then return them...sometimes they even wear them before returning them. Years ago I worked in a department store where they literally would take back anything...they would put it right back on the shelf to be sold again.

in college I did alot of thrift store clothes shopping... not because it was cheap but because I was "alternative" like that. I wish I had alot of my old stuff. Work requires a more professional look. Now I do it because its cheap but not nearly as often. .

I dont worry about it at all... everything gets heavily laundered... bleach etc.

Actually it is my intention to do it more. I feel better about spending my money that way.

I also buy much of my kitchen wares this way. I find all sort of stuff I would never buy retail. It is amazing the stuff people get rid of. I have some very nice lightly used small appliances... some funky vintage stuff... cast iron, Le Creuset etc. Spending 5 or 10 bucks on something makes impulse buying fun.... If I end up not liking it... donate it back no biggie.

I also like the unkown... you know exactly what they will have at a chain store but in a thrift it is more of an hit or miss experience and you never know what you will find.

I have never been one to shop at thrift stores, much less buy clothes. But I'm not a shopper to begin with and probably only buy new clothes when the ones I have wear out or my size changes (which hardly ever happens). So I may buy clothes once every two or three years if that. I don't believe I have any bias against it, I just don't like shopping in stores.

Wife brought home a pair of Bass loafers that we couldn't tell if they had been worn or not. I looked at them and thought slippers ... now it seems I need socks in more colors than white so I can go in public with them.

I think for the last ten years most of my clothing has come from goodwill. Almost all still with tags. Wife has even found socks and underwear still in the package.

I kill clothing at a phenomenal rate. It's just a tack weld .... there goes another T-Shirt. Roofs wear out the butts of pants, tar stains, grease stains, I have one heck of a rag bag.

Not to say we get only work clothes from goodwill (sic). Wife and I both have designer cloths, most with the factory tags intact, all look as though they haven't been worn. Wife's coworkers thought she was making big bucks because of the clothes she wore to work.

Many times Wife would sell her goodwill finds to her coworkers, literally, right off her back and feet. Before she retired it got to the point Wife knew her coworkers sizes and would shop for them.

Fact, at New Years dinner with the family Wife was trying to gift a pair of unwoirn size 8 1/2 white womans tennis shoes, leather uppers, deck soles.

Golly, I just remembered, Wife has come home with stuff saying how this sister or that sister would like it ....

I would say We have no problems with Goodwill (sic) clothing.

NOW IF you want to talk accessories .... we sell costume jewelry by the pound. Because Wife buys it by the box.